Last year, competitors in Boulder's Shoot Out 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival realized the advantages of using digital equipment.

This year, the organizers are hoping to realize an increase in the number of competitors when filmmakers convene Oct. 19-21 for the ninth edition of Shoot Out Boulder.

"I'm hoping (the digital technology) will bring more people in," said AshleyClaire Albiniak-Masters, who is in her sixth year with Shoot Out Boulder but her first as producer.

She would like to see an increase in the number of teams from the 22 that competed in 2011.

"I would love 50 teams," she said, adding that each team typically has about six members.

"Every year it's more likely that people have digital cameras. That's one motivator (in the hope for a bigger turnout)."

Shoot Out Boulder doesn't have a lot of rules:

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Each team has 24 hours to create a seven-minute film.

Unlike actual film, the digital platform can be manipulated, so the teams' final product must appear as it is shot.

Teams must use at least five from a list of 11 options they'll receive when they show up Oct. 19. Every team must use one prop, one location and one piece of dialogue included on the list.

Anything can happen and usually does when filmmakers are given one day to make a digital movie at The Shoot Out 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival.
(Longmont Times-Call file photo)

"There's two schools of thought," Albiniak-Masters said about the scripting issue: Come prepared, or, "Don't do anything until you have all the grease (the 11-item list)."

"The first time we did this in 2004, the filmmakers turned their films in on a format called VHS," says Michael Conti, Shoot Out Boulder's executive director.

Cougar Littlefield last competed in Shoot Out Boulder in 2010, before the switch to digital. But he can see the benefit of shooting digitially.

"The nice thing is, before, when it was just tape, you couldn't change out the lenses, and for filmmaking, lenses can make a world of difference," said Littlefield, a 30-year-old actor.

The decision to become a solely digital event has created innovative and challenging approaches to the films, but the overall consensus is that it was a positive move.

"The digital technology has become more affordable and it has become part of the tool set that we all use every day," Conti said. "Because every day, because of that, I've seen more younger people use the technology to make better content and better stories."

Previously judged in two separate categories, 17 and younger and 18 and older, Shoot Out Boulder participants will compete in one category this year.

"We got a lot of feedback that the 17-and-under kids wanted to be included with the 18 and older," Albiniak-Masters said Organizers have noticed that the 17-and-younger crowd has progressively been increasing since the festival began.

Conti believes that's the case "because they have grown up with the technology; it is not being forced on them. It is a part of their culture, their life."

So it was an easy decision for Shoot Out Boulder to group everyone together.

"Those 17 and under are going to be the 18 and older eventually," Albiniak-Masters said. "It is beneficial they are becoming bigger and more involved because they will be the older group and bring their friends with them."

The bottom line to Conti is that people enter Shoot Out Boulder with the proper mind-set.

"Its not about where you get to, it's the journey," he said. "And the journey as a filmmaker has to be the most important thing."

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